Welding apparatus



1953 TICHENOR EI'AL WELDING APPARATUS Filed Dec. 24, 1949 INVEN TORS A TTOEWEV Patented Nov. 3, 1953 UN ITED STATES PAT ENT FF 2,658,162

WELDING APr'AitK'rUs Elwin L; Ticlie nor, Cliff/6h; an'a Williar'ri F.

Cremins,'M6ntclair, N. J. ,-.'a;s"sig nors to'Curtiss- Wright Corporation, a corporation of Delawar Afiplibatibfi December 24, i949, serial No. irfios 1 Claim.

This" invention rlatesimproved methods for automatic arc welding and to the provision of maticaI-lyfe'd by a driving mechanism through a 'contrac'tor sho'e toward the Weld zone, the welding head moving over a prepared workpiece. Electrical power is supplied to the welding head 'sliofe s'dthat itma'y be transferred tothe welding rod, there being an are between the end of the welding rod and the workpiece which rnelt's the welding" rod, heats up the material of the weld preparation, depositsmtail on the Weld preparation. Apparattrs' of this sort as above noted is well known inthe art. Our improvements in brief I consistfeeding two or more rods in parallel", through the Sallie welding head if thaitis convenient, and in supplying the several rods with power from the same power source. In passing the welding head over the workpiece,- an arc is struck between each welding rodand the workpiece, the rods passing over the workpiece inside by side or abreast relationship so that a plurality Of Weld metaldposits' are" mad es inl 1'- ta'ne'ou'sly. The welding rodsarespaced from one another a relatively short distance,- as presently 'eontemplated from one-fourth inch to' one inch though such spacing is not limiting; depending uponthe welding current density and the size of the welding rodflidthe endthat a-poOlOf welding metal is formed not only" beneath each welding rod but also between thermthe weld-nieta-l fiowi'n'g across the workpiece between the" two welding rods and depositing itself uponthe workpiece. Heat-penetrationand manager the parent metal, efi'eted by the welding arcs; is somewhat deeper directly beneath the welding rodsbut heat still penetrates "the workpieceb etwee'n'therods to melt fili pafrfit filfial-sd that 9; (lofilplet anliefit-iife bond of weld. meter is attained throughout the weld width.

In prior practice, ithas been conventional to utilize a; single welding rod of appropriate diam eter, feeding said rod to the work and"- energizing the arc with a current" and voltage appropriate tion witharnon-uniform weld bead resulting from new eperation; The cause of these defects is sometimes called arc blow? and is apparently see to bility 6f the a'rc and/or faulty weld Also; in conventional single rod weld ng technique; if it is desired to build up material on a workpiece, a succession of beads are laidupon the workpiece; the b'eads' overlapping and e'v any building up the desired amount of metal. :I-I'owe'yfer, these sucee'ssive beads cool off, and? the' nextjbead is laid ifipon r-101- b e ads heat inw'elding' the new 'f we the o ldto' forrn a good bfond but the configure. o of the; sucessw "beads leave considerable ex essmetal', irrcreasin'g the amount of machining qu my be accomplished, I I :of our'technidue, a broad uniformwnd be'a'ansy b'e' 'laid upon awn-inn te or weld preparation since'jthe' weld metal from the two arcs ijows therebtw e'en', laying out in substantially hat fashion so' that the resulting built-up bead much than those obtainable e p o a leer i s de i fir r' smal amount ofexeessmaterial for subsequent machinns, n b di to t e q l m' c with a mi limum but optimurnpf weld penetration into the parent metal, In the prior single rod technique if considerable metal waste be laid upon a workpiece high current densities were requiredto melt the material and unnecessarily deep weld penetration was caused in the parent metal, disturbing the grain structure of the metal and weakening it;

Our invention may be applied in many different ways; the attached drawings show a few of the 'applicaltiohsof our technique'along with an exemplary arrangementof multiple welding rods being fed to the samewel'd zone; These embodiments are not to be construed as'limiti'ng the scope of the invention, the latter only being limited by the appended" claims.-

In-the drawings Fig. 1 ma more or less schematic sectional view of a welding head embodyinga' desirable form of the inventiom which as shown consists of a pair'of welding rods applied to one 'arrangement'o'f a weld preparation;

Fig; 2 showsa; portion of a welding head embodying multiple welding rods; building up a broad flat head-- on a plate; 7

Fig. 3 showsmultiple welding rods utilized for the purpose of building u a" very thick broad head on a weld preparation;

Fig. 4 shows the application of our invention to the welding of two angula'rly disposed plates which comprise aweld preparation;

to the bottom of the welding head Fig. 5 shows the application of our invention to an exterior corner weld;

Fig. 6 shows the use our invention in welding together two prepared plates; and

Fig. 7 shows the use of our invention in ell'ecting an inside corner weld.

Referring first to Fig. l, we show a welding head it} which includes a rod feed shaft l2 carrying a grooved feed roll i l having a groove 56 for the first weld rod l8 and a groove 20, spaced from groove [6, to feed a second weld rod 22. The rods l8 and 22 are fed to the top of the head H] from appropriate feed reels and are held against the roll M by a pressure roll 23. Ordinarily the head it is carried on a movable mounting so that it may be passed in one or more directions in a horizontal plane over a workpiece 24. Secured I0 is an adapter 26, insulated at 28 from the head, to

which a power cable 30 is secured, the cable being fed with welding power from a D. C. generator 32 or other power source through a lead 34, the other lead 36 of the generator being grounded to the workpiece 24. To the lower end q of the adapter 26 is secured a power transfer nozzle or welding rod guide 38 provided with holes 10 and 42 through which the respective weld rods 18 and 22 pass. The size of the holes 40 and 42 is such as to provide a close running fit with the weld rods, and welding power transfer to the rods is afforded through the guide 38 alone, since other portions of the weld rods are in insulated relation to the welding head. To assist in maintaining this insulated relationship, the weld rods l8 and 22 may be passed through nonconducting tubes of porcelain or the like indi cated at 4 5 and 46 which bridge the distance from the bottom of the welding head ll] to the top of the weld rod guide 38.

The rods l8 and 22 issue from the bottom of the guide 38 which is spaced above the workpiece 24. In operation, arcs 4B and 5B are struck between the respective weld rods and the workpiece, these arcs tending to diverge from one another or to blow away from each other due to the fact that magnetic repulsion exists therebetween since the weld rods are both of the same magnetic polarity, being fed from a common current supply. This blow holds the arcs in a steady, di-

verging position in space and renders them very .corner of the plate 242) and the weld rod 22. The

two arcs break down the respective corners of the plates, melting them, while weld metal from the rods feeds into the groove between the plates,

commingling with the molten metal of the parent plates and forming between them a pool of molten i shows a weld rod guide 38 adapted to receive four welding rods i3, i9, 2! and 22 arranged in side by side relation and adapted to travel abreast at the same rate of rod feed over a workpiece. All four rods are furnished with welding power simultaneously through the same transfer guide 38 and four arcs indicated at 48, 49, t0 and 5| are formed between respective rods and the workpiece here shown as a flat plate upon which it is desired to build up a broad bead. The head is shown at St and it will be noted that each of the four arcs will effect a somewhat deeper high temperature weld penetration immediately therebeneath, than between the arcs, in the parent metal the line of demarcation being noted at 51. However, sufficient weld penetration is obtained between the arcs as well as directly under them to provide a complete fused bond between the applied weld metal and the workpiece 54. As weld metal. is deposited, it flows freely between the several electrodes to form a substantially flat head, built up on the workpiece 5A, the bead portion 5% shown as being double cross-hatched representing an admixture of weld metal and parent metal from the workpiece 54. It is clear from this figure that a large amount of weld metal may be deposited simultaneously, in a single pass, said metal being distributed over a large oi the workpiece. If the same weld were to be made in a single pass, a much heavier bead than might be desired would be deposited and also, the current density which would be needed would cause an unnecessarily deep penetration of fused metal into the parent metal. It would be impossible to secure the uniform relatively fiat top on the bead 56 if a succession of passes were to made with a single weld rod set up for the amount of current which each of the multiple weld rods receives in the arrangement of Fig. 2.

It may here be noted that the several arcs in the multiple weld of this invention are self-compensating since the several rods are fed simultaneously. If there be an instantaneous unbalance of current density between the several rods, less metal would be deposited from the rod having the lower current density. Thus the end of the rod would approach the workpiece more closely, increasing the intensity of the local arc and thereby burning off the weld rod at high current density until it is equal with the rest whereupon uniform arcs between the several weld rods are resumed. This phenomenon would not occur, necessarily, if each of the several weld rods were individually fed by a separate feed system and were individually controlled by separate welding controls or provided with power from separate generators.

Reference may now be made to Fig. 3 wherein double weld rods are used, feeding from a common guide 38. The intended weld in this figure is a thick build-up on a plate or workpiece wherein a succession of passes are made over the same path. In the first pass of the welding head a bead 60 is deposited on the workpiece 62, this bead having deeper penetration directly beneath the weld rods and shallower penetration therebetween, the deposited metal flowing between the two electrodes forming a relatively flat shallow bead on the workpiece. The second pass over the bear 60 builds the weld up to the level 64 and a third pass and a fourth pass respectively build the bead up to the levels 66 and 6B. The levels 60, 64, 66 and 68 are intended to represent progressive outer surfaces of the weld beads, rather than the heat penetration within the portions cyessnea already formed. it isa phenomenon inapractice of this technique that the'outer profiles 60-68 are substantially parallel to one another regardless of how many passes may be made to build up the bead. It is a further phenomenon in the practice of this technique that the successive beads will lie upon'one another with no overflow, the sides of the aggregate final bead being substantially normal to theworkpiece- 62 with only slight irregularities therealong which may be readily machine-d off. Macro-etching of a section of the bead of 3 shows completely homogeneous weld metal in the build-up bead and .a demarcation only between the parent plate 62 and the bottom of the first bead as at 63 which reveals the amount of weld penetration in the parent material. By .this technique, high flanges may be built up on components of all sorts. Also, using the techniques of Figs. 2 or 3,

broad build-ups may be obtained by running a i succession of slightly overlapping beads in sideby-s'ide relation.

Fig. 4 shows our welding technique applied to the welding of overlapped, acutely angled plates and "12 wherein it is desired to fill in the exg terior groove formed between the plates as by a weld bead 14. Where complete penetration in both platesis desired, it ispreferable to space the end of the plate 10 from the surface of the plate 12 and to provide a backing-up bar 16 of copper or the like, faced with flux or fibreglass. In making the welding pass, the electrode I8 is directed toward the corner of the plate 10 and the electrode 22 is directed toward the corner of the plate 12. As welding proceeds, heat penetration from the are 48 melts the corner of the plate 10 and deposits weld metal therealong while heat penetration from the are 50 causes weld penetration at the corner of the plate 12 as indicated by the dotted line. The weld metal deposited by both rods bonds to the two plates and fiows between the welding rods to form the homogeneous head 14 which may either be built up by several passes or may be formed in a single pass if the welding speed, rod feed, current density and voltage are properly adjusted.

The kinds of welds shown in Figs. 3 and 4 are particularly useful in the fabrication of hollow steel aircraft propeller blades, but are not limited thereto.

Fig. 5 shows a corner weld carried out with a double welding rod arrangement wherein the arcs 48 and 50 are directed toward the corners of plates and 82. Here, as in the arrangement of Fig. 4, each arc causes weld penetration in its respective plate, the weld metal being deposited between the two arcs and building up a homogeneous bead completely bonded to the facing edges of the plates 80 and 82. Depending upon the depth of weld desired, sufiiciently low feed may be used and sufliciently high current density to form a complete joint between the two members whereupon it will be desirable to backup the corner between the plates with a member faced with flux or fibreglass, or with a fluxing core known in the prior art.

Fig. 6 shows an arrangement for joining two plates in abutting relation, the plates having been chamfered to form a groove therebetween which is to be filled with Weld metal. Here, the electrodes [8 and 22 are adapted to lie opposite the corners 86 and 88 respectively of the prepared plate members 90 and 92. Since the plates 90 and 92 abut at their bottom edges, no weld back-up is needed and it is presumed here that the weld penetration is not desired for the-full depth of the plates. The welding takes place as previously described, the arcs -48 and 50 working respectively with the plate corners 86 and 88, the weld metal from the rods depositing in the groove between the plates and bonding to the chamfered edges of the plates, the upper bead being substantially fiat'between the arcs due to the interflow of molten weld metal as the weld metal accumulates. I

Fig. 7 shows our technique" applied to the 'Wldf ing of'an inside corner joint wherein rods "I 8 and 22 are directed one each toward plates 84 and 96 comprising the weld preparation. In a manner similar to that described above, the two arcs 48 and 58 cause heat penetration in the respective plates and the deposit of metal thereupon, the molten metal deposited flowing between the plates and between the arcs and bonding to the plates so that the resultantweld bead is a uniform fiat formation characterized by freedom from the ripple which usually occurs on a weld bead formed with a single weld rod.

The techniques of this invention are partlcularly useful in the welding of thin sheet metal since current densities can be maintained at a low level commensurate with the shallow weld penetration requirements of the thin sheet metal, while a generous amount of weld metal may be deposited, completely joining the edges of the thin metal plates and providing an effective bead therebetween.

Only a few kinds of weld preparations have been shown in the drawings and many more applications for the welding technique herein described will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Most of the figures show the use of a dual weld rod arrangement but multiple rods using three, four or more rods are Wholly within the scope of the invention. an example of four rods having been shown in Fig. 2.

A further phenomenon which appears to take place in the practice of our multiple-rod welding technique for welding two pieces is that the focal points of high temperature from the two arcs have optimum location-that is, at or near the surfaces of the parent metal of the workpieces. The are heat thus blends weld metal and parent metal, while molten weld metal flows between the two arcs at a less-than-arc temperature. Upon cooling, heat being conducted away from the weld zone through the parent metal, the high temperature portions adjacent the faces of the parent metal are cooled first, after which heat from the pool of weld metal dissipates through the bond faces and to the atmosphere. The pool of weld metal or, only one face of the workpiece edges, are not excessively heated as in usual single electrode practice in order to bring one or both faces of the parent metal up to the temperature needed for good bonding. Accordingly, the use of our technique produces sounder welds less likely to have incipient flaws upon cooling.

It can be appreciated in setting up a weld preparation for two pieces, that the thermal bond between the two pieces of the weld preparation is rather poor, and that a single arc is inevitably going to pass between the rod and only one point of one of the workpieces, leaving the other workpiece cool until it is heated by deposited weld metal. A high enough temperature must be developed and sustained at the point of arcing to bring other parts of the desired weld up to temperature, with the possibility that the metal at the arc zone is much hotter than necessary. In

using our technique, both pieces of parent metal are positively heated, removing one of the deficiencies of the customary technique and producing sounder and faster welds, and reducing the need for high precision fitting in the weld preparation.

Though several embodiments illustrating the invention have been shown and described, it is to be understood that the invention may be applied in other and various forms. Changes may be made in the arrangements, without departing from the spirit of the invention. Reference should be had to the appended claims for deflnitions of the limits of the invention.

What is claimed is:

An automatic electric welding setup comprising in combination a Welding head having a welding rod. feedroll including annular grooves of the same diameter spaced between one-fourth inch and one inch apart, means to drive said feedroll rotationally to feed welding rods engaged with the roll in said grooves in unison, a unitary welding rod guide and nozzle member of electrically conductive material, means to secure said member to said head in electrically insulated relation thereto and in spaced relation from the head and feedroll, an insulating guide sleeve for and embracing each weld rod disposed between said feedroll and said member and secured in place by said securing means, said member including parallel guide holes alined with said guide sleeves, spaced apart by a distance of onefourth inch to one inch, weld rods engaging said roll at said grooves, passing through said sleeves and passing through said guide holes in said member, said rods have fitting engagement with and contacting the member to enable welding current transfer from the member to said rods, and conductor means firmly connected to said member to carry welding power to said member and to both of said rods simultaneously, as both of said rods are fed from said feedroll through said guides and through said member.

EDWIN L. TICHENOR. WILLIAM F. CREMINS.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,340,056 Kenyon May 11, 1920 1,371,094 Holslag Mar. 8, 1921 2,083,309 Applegate June 8, 1937 2,151,915 Hopkins Mar. 28, 1939 2,226,403 Hopkins Dec. 24, 1940 2,241,572 Armstrong M May 13, 1941 2,299,747 Harter Oct. 27, 1942 2,536,294 Landis et al Jan. 2, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 609,848 Germany Feb. 26, 1935 

